A Tribute To Orlando's Gerald Rutberg

August 14, 1985|By Lewis Grizzard, Cowles Syndicate

Gerald Rutberg's friends, and they are a legion, have been celebrating for several days since we got the word Rutberg made it to his surgery on time and apparently is going to be with us for a long time to come.

Gerald had pains and they wouldn't go away and the doctors kept looking until they found a tumor. The news crushed us, shocked us and sent us to our knees in prayer for him.

Rutberg. The amazing Rutberg. I met him 20 years ago. I was an undergrad at Georgia. He was studying at the Georgia Law School.

I have never met anybody else like him and there probably isn't anybody else like him, and that is good because his originality is certainly a part of his charm.

Rutberg. He can get a ticket to anything, including the toughest ticket in sports, the final round of the Masters golf tournament.

I saw him do it in 1966. I walked onto the hallowed ground of Augusta National with a press pass. Rutberg had only his wits. An hour later, I met him at the 13th green. He was wearing a Los Angeles Times photographer's badge.

Rutberg was to stay with me in my hotel room in New Orleans a few years back for the Sugar Bowl. I moved a couple of mountains and came up with two tickets for him in the end zone.

He didn't need them. He had eight on the 40 when he arrived in town.

Rutberg had a picture made when he attended the National Collegiate Hall of Fame football dinner in New York. The guy on the left in the picture was Richard Nixon. The one on the right was Gerald Ford. Rutberg was in the middle.

Rutberg attended the 1976 inauguration of President Jimmy Carter. He just kept walking and he just kept talking and he wound up three or four rows behind the Carters.

But there is more to Rutberg than even that. He's in his early 40s now, a successful attorney in Orlando.

He is one of the kindest people I know. We went to a spring training baseball game last March in Orlando. We stopped on the way and picked up a handicapped friend of Gerald's. Rutberg pulled and he tugged and somehow he got his friend and his wheelchair into the game.

He is the world's greatest host. Visit him in Orlando and the visit is as fast-paced as is Rutberg. A ball game, a VIP trip to Epcot, a cocktail party in your honor, a boat ride, a game of golf -- you name it, and Rutberg will have it there for you.

My money has never been any good with Rutberg. He pays. Don't try to talk him out of it.

I found him by phone at the Mayo Clinic after I received the disturbing news about his illness.

''Gerald,'' I began, hesitantly. What do you say at a time like that, even to a friend?

''Lewis!'' he replied, ''How's your mom?''

That is vintage Rutberg. He's in the hospital with a tumor and he's worried about my mother.

The early reports were terrible. The tumor was thought to be malignant. An operation to remove it might render the patient paralyzed. Rutberg in a wheelchair. We couldn't conceive of it.

Then, Billy James called me from Orlando. He had just received the word. The tumor wasn't malignant. There would be an operation, but the chances of total recovery were excellent.

''I hollered at the top of my voice when I heard the news,'' Billy said. I cried.

We love him. Rutberg's friends and his family love him. Thank God for the favor of his company in the past, for now, and most of all, in the future.